Milestones!

Presley has been doing a lot of really neat stuff lately. I already mentioned the drool. Thankfully, it is not intense drool but it is drool none the less and it is plentiful. Some other things that are exciting are toy wacking and grabbing/holding. Presley has finally mastered wacking toys with purpose and determination, awkwardly grabbing them, or holding them. She has even thrown a toy once. Here's some pictures of what I mean. I know they're not very good quality but she moves SO MUCH it's hard.



See? She's holding that toy! How fun! She grabs too.

Another milestone, I guess, is putting things in her mouth/licking. The few times Presley has had full command over a toy (and been aware) she has promptly move said toy to her mouth. She also licks things. She licks my shoulder, herself, etc. This is similar to her other new trick, eating her hand. Presley does not like pacifiers. In fact, she hates them more and more every time I attempt to help her calm down with them. This is sad for only one reason: someone got us some very lovely monogrammed pacifiers and I am sad to see them go unused because seeing "Presley" spelled out on her mouth is funny. I am also thrilled. I would not introduce them until after 4-5 weeks because I wanted us to get the hang of breastfeeding first. I guess that's why she hates them. I'm actually glad, though because I hate pacifiers and I think they look funny. Off track, anyways, Presley has been making very wholehearted attempts at sucking her thumb. She has not figured out how to do it yet but is VERY talented at sucking her entire hand. Here is evidence:

Now, what the heck is this thing?


Oh! I know. It is for my consumption, obviously.

Hehe, Presley has been noticing her hands and feet and looks at them as if they are the oddest things she's ever seen. I can't wait until she tries to eat her feet!

Also, Presley's Uncles J and R sent her an adorable fuchsia knit halter dress that she looks PRECIOUS in (see precious two pictures) and an interesting bonnet/head scarf thing that matches.

I forget if I mentioned, but Presley has also started to rub her eyes when she is ready for bed. Awesome for me because I know why she's crying/what she needs.

Example:


Oh, by the way, how cute is that diaper? Much cuter than a crinkly pampers with stupid cartoons on it!

Finally, head control. Presley is an expert at holding her head up and now enjoys tummy time much more.



Next on the list, rolling over! Presley showed some major rolling formation today but did not quite pull it off. I think I need to put her down more to practice!

All is well here! Presley is growing every day and appears happy!

Oh! I almost forgot!

Presley had her 2 month well baby visit Monday (albeit, almost 2 weeks too late).

She is:
11 pounds 12 ounces
23.25 inches

She got 2 vaccinations/1 poke because she is on a delayed schedule. Her pediatrician has his own delayed vax schedule which I am VERY thankful for because we wanted to delay/deny vaccinations. We are VERY happy with this situation. No more than 1 poke, no more than 2 vaccines at a time. Fantastic!

I will try and update more but school is starting soon and I am actually quite busy now that Pres is awake more.




Weird face but I LOVE when she does her stretches after she wakes up or when she is tired.

Pensacola, Florida

Hello from Florida!!!

We're soaking up the sun! Not really, Presley has delicate skin and has been to the pool once and she napped the entire time. She did go on a long walk with Grandpa yesterday, though. We're having fun! Presley decided she hates her bottles of expressed breastmilk and really put her grandmother through a time while mom was getting a massage.

Ah, well.

Presley is 10 weeks old Monday and has a doctor's appointment. She's not rolling yet but has FANTASTIC head control and SLEEPS THROUGH THE NIGHT so who can complain? She doesn't even really nurse to sleep which, while sad and frustrating, is also good. Not much has changed. She can roll from her back to her side but she's completely uninterested in any other maneuvering.




She enjoys the new hold I figured out for her ring sling:

And it usually makes her sleep:


Oh! I know something new! Presley is drooling and blowing spit bubbles. Exciting, right?

This evening she'll go to the beach to take sweet pictures in a dress with me and I'll post those and her bathing suite pictures as well as her POSSIBLY in the pool.

2 Months old!

Presley is 2 months old today, can you believe it?!

Days like today really solidify my belief in Attachment Parenting. Presley has cried for MAYBE 2 minutes TOTAL today. It seems SO important to always let her know that she isn't crying for nothing. I'm glad we're practicing this theory, it seems to be working very well. I am extremely pleased.
Well, our bags are packed, we're headed to the beach! I'm going to attempt some sweet beach pictures but we'll see how it goes, Presley leads the way on this one!
Otherwise, not much is going on. Lots of new sounds, no rolling (yet!), better head control:

Trips to the salon to get a pedicure:

And just making funny faces:




Seriously, her hair does that EVERYTIME I wash it. It stays all curley for two days. I cannot make it stop. It looks funny but I look like a don't comb her hair when we go out, slightly frustrating.



Sassy! I call this face The Daddy. I think it looks just like a baby Jeremy.

Today, Presley ate a (slept through me eating) hamburger at Lee's in Metairie before we went to Toys R Us to find a pump. It's a good time to mention- it's national breastfeeding week! We're so lucky to have such an easy nursing relationship. In honor of that and to help other women and children, we're donating 100oz of pumped milk at the end of next week.

Presley had some delicious sushi recently too:


Here is Presley when she stole my glasses!


Sheesh! I have to mention, when Presley is asleep next to me and I'm sitting up, she'll swing her arm over mine. I have a picture but it's not uploaded. It's the sweetest thing ever!

Sometimes, Presley does this thing I call the ballerina. It also goes by the name The Salsa:


Here's Presley in one of her cloth diapers, we just bought 1 bumgenius organic with snaps and 1 fuzzibuns pocket to see which we like better. This is a Tiny Tush Elite One Size Pocket. It's a good diaper but very fluffy so it doesn't fit under pants or onesies. Good for dresses, though.



This is a picture of Presley in her first Feltman Brothers dress. Lori gave it to us and it's GORGEOUS. Again, Presley dresses really well. Rarely does she wear anything out that isn't a gorgeous handmade dress. Yikes!



This next picture is a face I hope I won't see for another few years but I'm sure it'll be a regular occurrence when things don't go her way...



And finally...

"OMG YAY!"

Baby Faces 2

Truckin Along...

We live such a hard life...

We're just truckin...Presley's 7 weeks old tomorrow and doing great. She's not chub like other babies, I've noticed. She's slim and tiny (she's not tiny, really, she's nearly 10 lbs but she's not a big girl either). I like it. We're excepting 4 of the 6 ebay diapers tomorrow and the other 2 by Friday and they're REALLY cute and hopefully they don't leak so I can't wait to get a picture.

Today we went to Target and Presley got her first two pairs of Baby Legs. They're like bitty people leggins. She looks like she could dance in the baby version of FAME! (if only she could get that wobbly head to stop wobblying!) and they'll be useful later when she starts to crawl. They're good because she doesn't wear pants (except for the sweet gold adidas track pants we got at BRU for $3 recently) but sometimes gets cold. Here's a picture of her cloth booty and new Baby Legs:The other pair are green with polka dots and little frogs. She likes to wear them when she's "hoppy". HAHA.

Here are the HILARIOUS gold pants that I'm pretty sure her grandmother stole and hid somewhere because I haven't seen them since the night she got them. Either way, they make her look like Miami Vice baby. Baby pants are the most awkward article of clothing ever made. The legs are all fat and flared and the waise goes up to their neck and they're very short. I could just giggle all day LOOKING at them.


This week Presley has had many firsts, here are some of them:

-Presley recieved her first smocked dress today (pictures soon).
-Presley wore her first monogrammed dress.*
-Presley slept through the night last night (12am-630am) for the first time.
-Presley stayed with her grandmother for the first time for over an hour without Mommy.
-Presley wore her first pair of pants (see: gold pants above).
-Presley got her first manicure (read: Dre cut her nails because she was hurting Mommy).
-Presley talked to Daddy on the phone for the first time.
*

Presley and I spent the weekend sleeping in really late (11 and 12!) and doing a bit of shopping and visiting. Friday night was really hard on Mommy and she said some bad words but we got through it. Here's the sleeping lady last night with her custom "P" jammies:


She's really got nicer clothes than I do which is a bit unnerving but only the best for Miss P. Another thing that is is exciting is that Presley has about a million dresses that fit right now so she always looks adorable. Here she is showing off a sweet dress but accidentally flashing her camera. The look on her face says "Oh, dear! My diaper is showing, how do I scoot to fix this? I have not mastered sitting up unassisted quite yet..."


Another thing Presley was doing recently was watching TV. Yes, I caught her and her grandmother red handed. Presley is not allowed to watch television until she is way older and only for very short periods of time. I scolded them (not really) but not before capturing this gem:


Finally, Presley leaves the house a lot. It's not all pretty dresses, TV, and sleeping. Often, she is in her carseat jetting around town and shopping at Target or capturing the attention of half of Borders upon arrival (sleeping in a sling, mind you!)...


Mostly, though, she's a sweet sleepy girl. I absolutely LOVE waking up and going to sleep with my girl. And Reggie's there to keep my feets warm and toasty...

Prissly

Presley is doing great. WE GOT SOME CLOTH DIAPERS. We (mommy) are so excited. We have 2 bumGenius! all in one diapers coming in the the mail and 6 handmade all in one's. I cannot wait to get pictures of her in them. They should all be here by Friday. We don't quite have enough to be comfortable using cloth full time (which means extra work for mom) but I'm hoping to pick up a few pockets diapers (which means you have to use an insert) from a lady off craigslist and use the gDiaper (the flushable insert/cloth cover) inserts until I can afford regular cloth ones. But really, I'm super excited about the entire thing. It's nice to know I'll be putting cotton/hemp on her bottom and not chemicals. Plus, cloth diapers are ADORABLE. I actually have a few pictures of her in gDiapers which are a hybrid disposable/cloth but not made with the harsh chemicals in disposables and they're ecofriendly because they can be flushed, composted, or throw away and they don't pile up in landfills.

Anyways. Presley went to Mandeville today for her Great-Grandmother's 69th birthday party. She had an alright time. Actually, it was a little overwhelming and she cried a lot. She did take a nice nap on the couch with her most favorite uncle.

The drive there and back (about an hour) were fine, she sleeps well in the car but she was not amused once we were there. Sometimes, I have to remind myself she's only 6 weeks old and I can't MAKE her be an easy travel baby. Oh, well.

Presley is going on her first vacation for 11 days August 1st. Hopefully, her head control will be solidified (it's getting there) and she'll enjoy the pool. She has the cutest bathing suite already, I don't know how well it's going to fit with a diaper but we'll see. I can't wait to put her in the pool. She loves water so hopefully she'll enjoy the pool. Crossing my fingers. I stuck her feet in today and she seemed to not mind.

Tomorrow, we're going to see Dr. Von Almen, the OB who delivered Presley. I'm hoping all is well so I can start swimming Tuesday.

Presley had her 1 month well baby visit on Thursday. Her current stats are:

9lbs 12 oz
21.5 inches (it's listed as 22.5 inches but her head wasn't all the way against the wall for the measurment, I don't like pushing the soft area against the hard wall so whatever)

Her doctor says she's "perfect" and "thriving" and "a joy to be around" despite her screaming after he woke her up for the checkup. She does have a belly button hernia which is why it sticks out so much but he says that 99% of them will close up and it's nothing to worry about. It's not a big deal to me because she is rarely shirtless in the presence of anyone but me and her grandmother with the exception of Saturday night...

Saturday night was the worst night of my life with Presley. She SCREAMED AND SCREAMED AND SCREAMED for 30 minutes. I had her sitting in the bathtub because it's one of the only things that calms her down and when I took her out you would have swore I chopped her leg off. I put her gDiaper on her and wrapper her in a blanket to make sure that I didn't further anger her by OMG! putting a shirt or worse a nightgown on. Uncle Roth came home JUST IN TIME and we literally took 15 minutes to get her carseat in his car and I stuck her in it, just in a diaper with a blanket over her and made him drive to Burger King (the farthest fast food I could think of). She was quiet the whole time. She was asleep when we got home but woke up shortly after, pooped a lot, nursed, pooped twice more, nursed, and fell asleep. It was terrible. Her Uncle (who is only 16) did the most amazing job. He held her, bounced her, tried to calm her down, drove her around, and was just a lifesaver. I really might have gone insane if he wasn't there.

Presley is 6 weeks old tomorrow. Time is flying. I hear, soon, she'll be grabbing things. She's already cooing and I sware she says words (not really). She's pretty much given up the pacifier. She'll take it on car rides but that's it, thank goodness. I hate that thing. She enjoys napping in her new swing.


I can hear the princess stirring for her midnight nursing session so I've got to go but I'll be sure to take lots of pictures (especially in the diapers) and post soon.

The poopy to end all poopies.

Presley's been having constipation issues which have cause some poopy build up and then MAJOR poopies and a few blowouts. This blowout was AMAZING. That's right, I took a picture. I was so amazed at how quickly it spread (she was sitting on my lap so the gravity would help her) all over the clean onesie I just worked so hard to get on (she HATES things on her head) and the new diaper I just put on. In the picture, she's on the pack n play changing table. Right after I took her, with the cloth diaper under her, and put her on her bath sponge that we don't use because we have the Margaret. I turned the water on and stared at her. How was I going to get all of the things off without getting poop on me? What was I thinking trying to figure THAT out? Presley, however, was happy as could be. It wasn't a bad clean up (not as bad as the time she blew out on my crotch) but it was ALL OVER HER. So, that's a picture for her first boyfriend.

Presley has her first 1 month well baby visit Friday (or Thursday, I forget) and I can't wait to see how much she weighs. I was thinking she was gaining until we met cousin A who is, again, 17 lbs at 4.5 months old. She's also still fitting in newborn diapers (although we stopped buying them because they don't hold the poop) and outfits. Her 3 month clothes are way too big.

Speaking of diapers, I'm thinking I want to cloth diaper Presley. Before you roll your eyes, they make really state of the art cloth diapers these days. No pins, no folding. They make all in one (AIO), covers and inserts that can just be washed. They're cheaper in the long run but initially quite expensive. Mommy cannot afford to just buy them. So, we've got a few people willing to sell their second hand. Hopefully, we can get ahold of some and try it out. If I can get enough saved up and start building a diaper stash before she's 3 months, I'll be happy. Her heiney will be happy too because disposable diapers are gross.

Anyways, Miss Presley will be 6 WEEKS OLD Monday! Can you believe? I can't. She's just getting so old. Sometimes she does things and I see her Daddy, it's funny. Mostly, though, she cracks me up even when she's screaming and won't go to sleep because her tummy hurts. Luckily, I sleep at night pretty much.

This is Presley's GIMMIE SOME MILK MOMMY! face:

Fourth of July and ALMOST 5 weeks old.

Presley made her first trip out of state yesterday. She went to the always classy state of Mississippi to meet some cousins! It's only about an hour and 15 minutes from New Orleans to get to Bay St. Louis. Her Great-Great Grandparents (who died only about 7 or 8 years ago) had two houses on the Bay. Hurricane Katrina decimated them. All of them, all the furniture, memories, everything gone. Unfortunately, her great-great aunt lived only a few blocks down and she lost her house too along with her son and Presley's great-grandmother. So, we went out to the property where Great (her double Great) Uncle J brought his RV and we set up lots of chairs in the shade and some food and there was a boat and jetski. Presley slept the entire way there, the entire time we were there (and yes, I had her outside in the 99 degree heat the majority of the time, she was fine), ate twice, and slept the entire way back. Everyone said she was SO beautiful and commented on her red hair. Also in attendence were her two new cousins, B and A born in January about 3 days apart. B is a girl and she's adorable. A is a boy and he's 5.5 months and 17 lbs. Biggest baby I have ever seen. Presley has another girl cousin on the way in November so that's pretty exciting!
She also got to meet her Great, Great Uncle (he's ONLY 50) B's 5 kids, and 3 other school-age cousins. She didn't get to see Cousin G's 4 girls or Aunt J's 3 girls but that's okay. She met lots of relatives. It was very exciting.
She came home, ate, and slept from about 6-12am. She woke up around 12, nursed, and slowly went back to sleep. She ate again around 4 am and then again around 745 am and went back down for a nap around 9 am and is sleeping now.

She REALLY needs a bath, though.

Tuesday marks Presley's 1 month doctor visit. I haven't checked for sure, but I think she MAY get a shot. I need to call and ask. Poor baby.

Anyways, we idiotically did not get any pictures yesterday despite having the camera but I have some from the week. I think it was too hot for anyone to want to take a picture anyways.



Here's Pres in her Raiders onesie. She's mostly a Saints fan but she knows Daddy loves the Raiders so she cheers when they play.


One of Presley's boyfriends, E, gave her these sweet Nike's that he's outgrown. They're a size or two too big (and mommy doesn't think heavy shoes are good for little feet) but they're HILARIOUS.

1 Month!

Presley was 1 month old yesterday (or today if you count 31 days)...

She's doing really well. Not much of an update except that she celebrated with a scream fest. Since we're staying at Dre and Paw-Paw's (her grandparents) while our house is being painted, we had Dre (grandma) help calm Presley down. Paw-Paw was sure to tell Pres that "this is how your mommy was every day times 8 months!" and he didn't look like he was kidding or reminiscent! I seem to remember a similar story from Grandpa R about Jeremy. Luckily, Presley went down by 9pm. It was a trying hour or so, though.

Presley continues to grow everyday. She's hitting all the milestones she's supposed to and is a joy. Here are some pictures from a particularly fantastic bath time with the funny (but AWESOME) bathing implement her godmother, M, gave her.


Today, we're off to the post office to mail something to Daddy and then perhaps we will take an adventure around town!